News

VT Digger reports on current efforts being made to open a winter warming shelter in St. Johnsbury. Below is an excerpt from the article:

A local steering committee hopes to open a winter warming shelter in St. Johnsbury to house up to 10 homeless people in time for the next cold season.

Organizers are looking for support to host the facility in part of the Northeast Kingdom Youth Services building on Bagley Street and would like to have it open by October.

The state spent more than $270,000 on motel vouchers for homeless people in the St. Johnsbury area last winter. A shelter could mitigate that cost while connecting people with other services to help them escape poverty, officials say.

About 25 people turned out Thursday night at the proposed shelter site for a spaghetti supper and to learn more about the proposed overnight transitional shelter.

The committee is made up of nonprofits, including the Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NEKCA), the Community Justice Restorative Center, Inc., Northeast Kingdom Youth Services, local clergy, the Agency of Human Services, the Economic Services Division and more.

Northeast Kingdom Youth Services has offered the shelter site at “a very affordable rate,” said Val Covell, warming shelter coordinator for NEKCA.

A similar effort failed last year after opposition rose against a proposed site on Lincoln Street, she said.

Covell said the state is working with communities to find better solutions to help homeless individuals than the present voucher system, where people in crisis are put into motels on an emergency basis.

A warming shelter would help to connect people to services such as housing and employment to help them get back on their feet, Covell said.

“It’s not just about housing them, it’s about trying to help them — why are they on the street? What happened, and what can we do to get them where they need to be?” she said.

The shelter proposal will be before the town’s Development Review Board on July 30, where a vote on the change of use application filed by Northeast Kingdom Youth Services is expected.

This week the Burlington Free Press reported on how members of the community in Shelburne and service providers are working together to make sure that Harbor Place is safe for both guests and neighbors. Below is an excerpt from the article:

“The goal is that with some simple tweaks in the process, we can make it better.” he said. “Even though it is an excellent alternative for the agencies, it is still not meeting the expectations of Shelburne.”

Shelburne Police Chief James Warden, reached by telephone on Friday, said Champlain Housing Trust has responded every time he has asked for help from the agency. For example, they have paid for a higher security presence and purchased video security cameras.

“We want it to work,” Warden said, adding that his request is for agencies to prevent “undesirables” from being sent to Harbor Place, so others can feel safe. He said violators of Harbor Place rules should not be allowed back, even after a 30-day waiting period.

Michael Monte, chief operations and financial officer for the Champlain Housing Trust, said Harbor Place is enormously better than a system of randomly placing people in hotels throughout Chittenden County.

“But what we really need are more long-term and permanent affordable housing, and we are dedicated to providing that,” Monte said. “Our goal is to create 40 more homes for the chronically homeless and 30 additional homes for homeless families in the next year.”

The Harbor Place site could not currently be considered for permanent multi-family residences, said Shelburne Town Planner Dean Pierce, because of the zoning requirement for 10,000 square feet of property for each dwelling unit in the mixed-use zone.

If the form-based zoning being discussed for Shelburne comes to fruition, the possibility could exist for buildings to be converted to permanent housing on the 6-acre Harbor Place property, Pierce said. If adopted, the new density regulations would require 7,500 square feet for the first three units of a multi-family dwelling and 2,000 for each subsequent unit, allowing the opportunity for a 60-unit residence like the Harbor Place structure to exist if it met other regulations.

Jan Demers, Executive Director of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, explained that the organization has a contract with the Vermont Department for Children and Families, providing services to assist the guests at Harbor Place but that CVOEO does not do referrals.

Demers said by email that she is pleased that increased communication is a priority for the neighbors, town administration and service providers. “Harbor Place is a wonderful, safe alternative to isolated hotels for short term transition housing with the goal for more rapid permanent housing solutions.”

The latest issue of Seven Days​ features a great article by Alicia Freese on the struggles that victims of domestic violence face when seeking emergency shelter in Vermont. Below is a short excerpt:

“Many victims are making untenable choices between homelessness and abuse,” Auburn Watersong of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence told the small crowd at downtown Taylor Park.

She wasn’t being hyperbolic. Recently, emergency shelters for abuse victims have been unable to welcome everyone who comes knocking. Those who are turned away often end up in unsupervised motels along with the homeless and mentally ill.

In St. Albans, the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity runs a 10-bed shelter — one of 10 scattered across the state that offer secure accommodations to fleeing victims and their children. Program director Kris Lukens, who helped organize the rally, noted in an interview that it’s been full since last September.

Head southeast and the story is the same. WISE operates a safe home in the Upper Valley. “We don’t have the beds,” said director Peggy O’Neil.

Chittenden County’s Women Helping Battered Women has been full for roughly a year, according to executive director Kelly Dougherty.

Collectively, Vermont’s 10 shelters have a maximum capacity of 115 beds. In 2014, they provided emergency housing to 782 people for a total of nearly 29,000 nights, according to the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, a coalition of organizations that includes the shelters.

The Agency of Human Services and Department for Children and Families have just announced a proposal to restructure their emergency housing program. Please read more below and click here for the referenced attachment. The deadine to submit feedback is May 8th. DCF Commissioner Ken Schatz and other representatives will be at the May 13th VAHC meeting to discuss the proposal. The Coalition is also seeking feedback from members on the proposal, which can be emailed to erhardm@vtaffordablehousing.org.

Hello Fellow Housing Partners –

We are writing to let you know that DCF is proposing to restructure its emergency housing program. Attached to this email is an outline of a proposal to repurpose the money used for hotel vouchers in the GA program to fund community grants to homeless providers across the state. It sets forth a path to transition from providing emergency housing using motels to using community based services such as low barrier and warming shelters, transitional housing and other services to meet the needs of all homeless individuals and families effective October 1, 2015.

While DCF leadership recognizes this is an ambitious plan and timeframe, we believe it is achievable. We have heard many concerns from community partners, ESD staff and homeless individuals and families that the current system is not adequately addressing the ever increasing rate of homelessness, nor providing a pathway to stable, permanent housing. We ask you, our community partners, to help us address the problem of homelessness in our state in a way that matches the needs and capacity in your community while addressing the needs of people regardless of their age, disability or sobriety who require emergency shelter due to homelessness, domestic violence or other factors.

Over the coming weeks DCF will engage our community partners across the state to seek input on the proposal. An important element to the proposal is seeking legislation to have the authority should we move forward with this change.

Please feel free to forward this email to your housing partners and to review the attached document and respond with comments, questions and suggestions by May 8th via email (see addresses and instructions below). Or, if you prefer, please bring your questions to your next Continuum of Care or Housing meeting as we will be visiting local meetings in the upcoming weeks.

Thank you,
AHS Secretary Hal Cohen and DCF Commissioner Ken Schatz

Should you decide to email your questions or input, please feel free to direct it to with “Emergency Housing Initiative” in the subject line:

This week, VT Digger reported more on the strain that this year’s winter weather has put on the emergency housing budget. Read the article below or click here to view on their website:

In February, temperatures dropped to minus 19 degrees at the Burlington International Airport, breaking a record that stood since 1914.

Vermont set more troubling records this winter as well — the most consecutive nights where a cold weather exemption gave homeless people in the state access to emergency housing.

For 69 days, from Dec. 29 to March 8, every county in the state met the requirement for a cold weather exemption. When temperatures drop below 20 degrees, or below 32 degrees with snow or freezing rain, the state relaxes the eligibility requirements for emergency housing.

That’s the longest streak of statewide cold weather exemptions since the program’s implementation three years ago.

At the same time, the number of people, especially families, who are homeless and seeking emergency shelter from the cold has also increased, according to state officials. Their ranks well exceed the capacity of warming shelters, and the state is housing homeless Vermonters in hotel rooms.

The state approved $3.4 million to cover 36,314 hotel nights through the end of February; 8,942 were for the people who qualified under the cold weather exemption, at a cost of $1.5 million. Virtually all that money is spent on hotel and motel lodgings. Those numbers may come down as sometimes people approved for a hotel stay don’t show, and it can take up to two months for the state to receive bills from participating hotels.

The amount that has been approved already exceeds the $3.2 million in the current budget for emergency housing. That appropriation includes an additional $600,000 from the Budget Adjustment Act — and it does not include March, which has had a number of cold weather nights in many areas of the state.

“Based on our current spending we are going to be over budget,” said Sean Brown, deputy commissioner of economic services for the Department for Children and Families. “We are going to have to re-evaluate our budget for the program and find a new way forward.”

Appropriating more money for the current budget would require approval from the Emergency Board, a panel chaired by the governor and consisting of the chairs of the Legislature’s money committees.

Even with the opening of a new 20-bed warming shelter at the old Ethan Allen Club in Burlington, the highest demand area, costs continue to mount. That shelter has run at overflow capacity since opening in early February, housing between 24 and 28 people per night, according to Brown.

It still hasn’t been enough to keep up with demand, and costs continue to mount.

“Given the growth in the need in the program, that didn’t put a huge dent in spending,” Brown said.

Next year, the state will open a 52-bed shelter in downtown Burlington, which will help reduce costs Brown said, but at the same time, the governor’s proposed budget cuts $300,000 from the program in anticipation of those savings.

A dramatic rise in homelessness is driving the need for emergency housing. Requests for housing were up 64 percent through December, and the state provided 50 percent more hotel rooms per night. More families are seeking shelter, and there has been a 144 percent increase in the number of children who received housing through the cold weather exemption.

The events that lead to homelessness are varied and often unique to the individual or their family. Still, advocates point to the rise in substance abuse disorders, especially opiate addiction, stagnant wages and a lack of affordable housing in the state as a few of the underlying causes.

VT Digger reports on how demand for emergency housing this winter has increased, particularly amongst families with children, and how this affects the state’s budget for temporary shelter:

A cold winter and greater demand for emergency housing services, especially among families, are straining the state’s safety net housing budget, an official told lawmakers Friday.

The state provides up to 28 days of temporary housing to individuals and families who are homeless if someone is age 65 or older; if they receive Social Security or disability; if they are under age 6; or if they are in the third trimester of pregnancy. There are also ways for specific vulnerable populations, such as disabled veterans or Reach Up recipients, to qualify.

In addition, there is a cold weather exemption that relaxes the eligibility requirements when temperatures drop below 20 degrees, or 32 degrees with snow or freezing rain.

Since July, more than half of temporary housing granted was through the cold weather exemption, despite the fact that no days in October met the criteria. The state has spent more than $855,000 through the exemption this winter.

“That’s getting close to what we spent all of last season, and we still have February, March and some of April to get through,” said Sean Brown, deputy commissioner in charge of the Department for Children and Families Economic Services Division. January was particularly bad, with every night meeting the cold weather requirement in all 14 counties, Brown said.

A lack of space in shelters has increased the number of people the state is putting up in hotels and motels, he said. Requests for housing were up 64 percent through December, and the state provided 50 percent more hotel rooms per night.

The increasing need among families seeking shelter has resulted in a 144 percent rise in the number of children who received housing through the cold weather exemption, which Brown called an “alarming” statistic.

Often space for families in shelters is limited, and many wind up in rooms rented by the state. At the same time, the average cost of hotel and motel lodging for those who can’t find space in shelters has increased from $61 to $70 this fiscal year over last.

The problem is especially bad right now in Barre where space for families in shelters is scarce, and the cost for hotels in the temporary housing program is the highest in the state at $80 per night, Brown said.

This afternoon’s Vermont Edition took a look at problems of homelessness in Vermont and the difficulty of finding affordable and safe emergency housing for families in need. The program focused on the new Harbor Place temporary housing facility, spending issues with emergency housing vouchers, as well as discussing other issues concerning emergency and transitional housing.

By Leslie Black-Plumeau. Reposted from Housing Matters, March 18th, 2013.

“Calls fielded by Vermont 2-1-1 operators for emergency housing increased dramatically during January and February 2013. Calls for housing and shelter assistance exceeded all other types of calls in February.

Meanwhile, Vermont found itself ranked among the 2013 most expensive jurisdictions in the country by the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual “Out of Reach” report. Vermont was among the nation’s top 10 states with the highest non-metro area rents.